Industrialist Vijay Mallya has sought time till May to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged money laundering case, sources said.
The agency, that is investigating Mallya under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), had directed Mallya to appear in person before it on April 2.
Sources said that this time around they are unlikely to grant an extension and are contemplating the legal recourses available before the agency. “We have the option of either issuing a third summon or moving the court for issuance of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him. The decision on the same will be taken on Saturday,” a senior official said. “Issuing another summons would be a better legal recourse available at this point in time,” the official added.
In the past, Mallya has been told to appear before the agency on April 2 and March 18 and both times had sought an extension citing various grounds. Multiple agencies such as the CBI, SFIO and ED are probing his role after Kingfisher Airlines which he had promoted defaulted on bank loans. The company owes over Rs 9,000 crore to 17 banks in the country.
The ED has already questioned Ravi Nedungadi, former president and CFO at UB Group and A Raghunathan, former CFO of Kingfisher relating to this case. The ED in the past has written to 17 banks and a clutch of probe agencies for details on loans defaults and transactions involving Mallya’s companies. It has also sent official requests seeking details of the probe conducted by the income tax and service tax departments and the SFIO against the airline in the past.
According to sources, the agency is also looking into the foreign assets of Mallya, including an offshore trust set up by Mallya’s father late Vittal Mallya in 1982.
Mallya’s son steps down as UBHL director
New Delhi: Amid growing clamour for recovering over Rs 9,000 crore dues to banks by now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya-led United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd on Friday said its non-executive, non-independent director Sidhartha V Mallya has vacated the office of director with effect from March 31. This development comes days after Mallya, who is believed to be in the UK, took to Twitter to ask people not to target his son Siddharth.
“In terms of the provisions of Section 167(b) of the Companies Act, 2013, Sidhartha V Mallya, a non-executive, non-independent director of the company has vacated the office of director w.e.f. March 31, 2016,” UBHL said in a BSE filing.
On Wednesday, Mallya had tweeted: “My son Sid @sidmallya does not deserve all this abuse as he had nothing to do with my business. Slam me if you must but not a young man.”
Later in that day, Mallya and KFA had submitted in a sealed cover a proposal for repayment of Rs 4,000 crore out of the loan amount of Rs 6,903 crore to the consortium of banks by September.
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